Tag: night cream

My grandmothers are both beautiful women. The kind of women people look at and say “aapko toh apne zamaane main actor hona chahiye tha”. So growing up, when anyone told me that I looked like them, I would be overjoyed.

My nani and dadi both have always had flawless skin. The kind that would make skincare commercial models look dull. My dadi’s secret was to only and only use face packs made by her right in our kitchen, and use a honey and lemon mixture on her face every single time before she washed her hair. Her face pack would usually involve blending a mixture of daals and then adding some malaai and honey to it before applying. My nani’s solution to good skin on the other hand, was much simpler – Boroline – just use Boroline.

Both their methods, no matter how unique and different, practised and preached just one thing – keep your skin free of synthetic cosmetic products. And I did. Through my teenage years, while my friends experimented with different skincare or makeup products, I kept my skin clear of it all and stuck to using products that were more organic. I could just have been blessed with good genes as far as the skin was concerned, but through my adolescence, while my peers burst into bouts of acne and pimples, my skin remained flawless. I don’t remember ever getting even a single zit through my entire school life.

Then of course, as I proceeded from boarding school in India to college in England, my idea of what looked good changed. I began to see and live around girls who loved makeup and would spend hours just trying to get the perfect winged liner. I was amused at first, then fascinated and then engulfed entirely by the sheen of the highlighter. More than anything else, I think it was the pretty pink packaging that led me to splurge on all those products I really did not know how to use. Darn you, pink.

Naturally, as a byproduct of using all that makeup, my skin soon became dependent on it. It’s a vicious cycle really. You use makeup, it to a certain degree damages your skin and then you have no choice but to use it to make your skin look the way you want it to look. So for the first time, as I embarked on my 20th year on this planet, I was greeted by a very unwanted spot on my face.

The pimple phase eventually faded, but it left behind marks and dulled skin. As the years passed, makeup only became a more essential part of life. Talking about different makeup products, the best makeup brands, discussing different shades of lipstick, just became a Saturday girls-night-in ritual.

It was only about six months ago when I walked into work one day without makeup and everyone asked me if I was unwell that I had to tell myself “Okay, enough.” It wasn’t the lack of makeup but the overuse of it that had made my skin look so worn out. So I started to research some good organic skincare brands and decided to go the natural way once again.

You know how they say things happen when they’re meant to happen? Well, this might be a slightly callous use of the phrase, but right when I was looking for a reliable brand that is actually chemical-free, Enn’s closet got in touch to tell me they wanted to send over some products for me to try out.

Now I’m really particular about what I use on my face (off late, as I mentioned), so, to begin with, I’ve only tried their body butter and foot scrub. I had to try products on the not-so-sensitive parts of my skin before using the products meant for my face! I have to say, I’m rather impressed.

The body butter smells delicious, yes – but it also made my skin feel as soft as butter till hours after I used it. I used the Cherry Blossom body butter with an SPF-25. The SPF is an added bonus for me considering most types of body butter don’t have that and I make it a point to use creams with a certain amount of sun protection factor. The fact that it’s organic and made with ingredients like aloe vera, sweet almond oil, coconut oil and shea butter only makes it that much better.

The foot scrub, called mint-e-fresh, is made out of ingredients like salt and peppermint. To be honest, I’m not such a fan of things that smell ultra pepperminty. I find that the smell of peppermint if overused in quantity, can be overwhelming. I have to say though, that the way it made my feet feel after just a 30-second scrub was pretty incredible. I couldn’t smell the peppermint because thankfully my feet are a few feet away from my nose! So the fresh and cool feeling that you actually get as a result of the peppermint turned out to be a major plus.

While in an ideal world I’d actually like to be able to make my own products right in my kitchen like my dadi, time constraints in the busy lives most of us lead don’t always allow it. So one’s got to find a balance and try and find ready products that serve your purpose and suit your skin!

Have a fabulous week and find your balance!

For those of you who are interested, you can buy Enns Closet products here.